As best I can tell, I have posted only once about the Baptists in Australia (See “Baptists in Britain, Australia, and Canada). That has been almost 20 years ago now! My knowledge of Baptists in Australia is limited, but I offer the following updated research. I would appreciate more information about Baptists in Australia, from any of you readers who are “in the know.”
Baptists got a very late start in Australia – compared to 1638 in the United States and 1763 in Canada, the first Baptist work in Australia began with Baptist preaching in 1831 (in Sydney), with the first Baptist church organized in 1835 (in Hobart Town). This was 43 years after the British penal colony was established in 1788.
The oldest continuing Baptist church in Australia is the Collins Street Baptist Church in Melbourne, Victoria, constituted in 1843. The congregation originally met in a tent, with the first meeting house erected at the present Collins Street location in 1845.
The first state body of Baptists was formed in Victoria in 1862. In August of 1926 existing state unions joined together in Sydney to create the Baptist Union of Australia. Their current headquarters is in Belmont. The body has six state organizations, and is also affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. The Baptist Union of Australia is the legal name, but in 2009 this body launched a new operating name and logo.
I did not research and confirm the number of churches in various organizations as to whether they were accurate and up-to-date. I have simply repeated what I saw on websites, or in other sources. The numbers are provided to allow the reader to get some sense of how many Baptists churches exist in Australia, and how many are affiliated with which bodies. I did not find recent information on the Australian Baptist Independent Fellowship or the Faith Baptist Churches Fellowship. They may have ceased to exist, changed their names, or simply do not have a World Wide Web presence. I have left them on the list for now, and will leave them unless I confirm their non-existence.
- Association of Seventh Day Baptists Australia (about 5 churches)
- Australian Baptist Independent Fellowship (current status unknown)
- Australian Baptist Ministries/Baptist Union of Australia (over 1,000 churches)
- Baptist Churches of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory (over 360 churches)
- Baptist Churches of South Australia and Northern Territory (about 90 churches)
- Baptist Churches of Western Australia (org. 1896)
- Baptist Union of Tasmania (about 30 churches)
- Baptist Union of Victoria (over 250 churches)
- Queensland Baptists
- Australian Fellowship of Bible-Believing Churches/Declare [i] (about 30 churches) (began in 1996)
- Australian Strict Baptists (2 churches)[ii]
- Faith Baptist Churches Fellowship (current status unknown)
- Open Baptists, Ltd (org. 2023)[iii]
- Reformed Baptists (8 churches)
- U.S.A.-based denominations [such as American Baptist Association (1), Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (7), Baptist Bible Fellowship International (6), and Baptist Mid-Missions (1)]
There are independent or unaffiliated churches that exist apart from these groups, including some created by American missionary work.[iv] However, it seems that the vast majority of Baptists in Australia participate in the Baptist Union.
Baptists in Australia for 2013 claimed, “There are four groups of Baptist churches in Australia that are not associated with the state Baptist Unions.” They listed: (1) Independent Baptists, 196; (2) Baptist Reformed Churches, 12; (3) Strict and Particular Baptist Churches, 4; and (4) Seventh Day Baptists, 4.[v] It would seem Hughes and Cronshaw had to include some different groups as “independent Baptists” in order to reduce the number of different types to four.
Baptist Mission Australia is a foreign missions organization headquartered in Hawthorn, Victoria. It was formed in 1912 as the Australian Baptist Foreign Mission (it has also been known as the Australian Baptist Missionary Society and Global Interaction). It appears they may partner in mission with different Baptist groups.
The 2021 Australian census data, the 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom, and the Cultural Atlas consistently agree that Baptists make up 1.4% of the population of Australia. According to the Cultural Atlas, Baptists are the 6th-largest Christian denomination in Australia, after Roman Catholic, Anglican, Uniting Church, Eastern Orthodox, and Presbyterian & Reformed. 43.9% of the total population identify as Christians.
[i] Declare is a missions organization that seems to also have some relationship to the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism.
[ii] These churches have a relationship with the Gospel Standard Baptists in England.
[iii] Open Baptists Ltd was created in response to a controversy in the New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, which body in 2022 voted to require churches and ministers to affirm an exclusively heterosexual view of marriage. This led those who support and advocate for homosexual marriage to form a new association. It is open to churches in Australia or New Zealand that “support the objects and declaration of principles” of the constitution of Open Baptists Ltd. It is not exclusively distinct from the Baptist Union of Australia, in that some churches “continue to support their state associations” (i.e., those who remain in state associations that are not restrictive on the homosexual marriage issue). The group seems to be operating both inside and outside the state associations. See also Baptists will remove churches that fail to accept marriage statement.
[iv] “In 2013 there were 196 Independent Baptist Churches throughout the nation. Most of them were quite small, having congregations of less than fifty people and a total attendance of about 8000 people. The major growth of these churches has been in New South Wales and Queensland.” Baptists in Australia: A church with a heritage and a future, Philip J. Hughes and Darren Cronshaw. Nunawading, VIC: Christian Research Association, 2013, p. 54.
[v] Baptists in Australia, pp. 54-55.
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